Lessons from Ancient Outbreaks that could help fight the Covid19 Pandemic.
⌛ Reading time: 8 minutes
Has been said that History has always something to teach us, and i guess it is very true. Sometimes looking back to past events is the best way to understand what is happening today or maybe what could possibly happens in a near future. History is full of examples, teachings and lessons of almost...everything: not in vain is a subject that is included in the study plans of every educational system that may exist in the world.
Many people look in the past the answers they need to get rid of a given situation they have in the present. The fact is, that many times those answers comes full of wisdom, that not only helps you solve the issue you´re having right now, but they can help you on moving forward and learn how to prevent falling on the same path that led you to that bad situation so, in a near future, you don't trip over the same stone again.
The actual Pandemic scenario, with Covid19 disease spreading even more day after day, could be a clear example of lessons learned (or to be learned) to prevent future outbreaks, or at least to know beforehand how to face situations like this one.
But what has History taught us about other epidemic outbreaks that we could or can use today to deal with the actual Pandemic scenario?....Let's see some examples...!!!
History speaking: methods and teachings that still work today
One recommended advice today to deal with Covid19 disease to prevent the infection and to avoid the spreading of the virus is the technique that we know as “social distancing and isolation”. While there's an ongoing debate about the effectivity of measures like this one and the psychological impact that could have on people's live, we can find some historical examples that could, at least, prove that this technique was used before...a long time ago.
During an unknown disease outbreak in some regions belonging now to South Africa, 1000 years ago, people used to practice social distancing by dispersing settlements instead of separating themselves each other. Because of archaeology, we know now that the same practices were used by many ancient african societies as an effective method to deal with some pandemics. In what is Zimbabwe today, the Shona people in the 17th and 18th centuries isolated those suffering from infectious diseases – such as leprosy – in temporary residential structures, that way very few people could come into contact with the sick, preventing contagion and the spread of the disease.
Fig 1. *The Mutapa Empire(in green), founded by the Shona ethnic group. They used to isolate infected people during pandemics. (https://janakesho1.wordpress.com)*
The layout of settlements built during pandemics and post pandemics was also important. In areas such as Zimbabwe and parts of Mozambique, settlements were dispersed to house one or two families in a wider space. This allowed people to stay at a distance from each other while cooperating in daily tasks. Ancient africans know by experience that outbreaks were unpredictable but possible, so they built their settlements in a dispersed way, to plan ahead, trying to stop the disease while collaborating each other and with the idea of preventing contagion in a future.
Moving on time we can see the case of The Spanish Flu, back in 1918. This deadly pandemic show us the benefits of social distancing: cities that cancelled public events had far fewer cases than those ones widely open to big public concentrations. As a clear example we can see the Philadelphia vs. st Louis death rate at the same point in history where Philadelphia allowed a parade with 200,000 people marching in support of the World War I effort and by the end of the week, 4,500 people were dead from the flu. Meanwhile, St. Louis shuttered public buildings and curtailed transit; the flu death rate there was half of Philadelphia’s.
Today in many countries of the world is not allowed to have direct (not even indirect) contact with the remains of infected deceased people, where some scientists and local authorities recommend to burn at least the death body of the infected person preventing the spread of the disease. Ancient africans also knew this and practiced the isolation of death bodies of infected people and in some cases they burnt those bodies, burying the ashes in holy places. Archaeologists’ findings at Mwenezi in southern Zimbabwe also show that it was a taboo to touch or interfere with remains of the dead, lest diseases be transmitted in this way.
Fig 2. *Ancient societies used to burn the bodies of infected people (usually in a funeral rite) to avoid the spread of some diseases (https://commons.wikimedia.org)*
Given the actual spreading speed of Covid19 disease, almost every country in the world enacted a border closure, establishing border control points to prevent the entry of infected people to local territory. Measures like this ones do not come from our days, but go back further in ancient history were this kind of techniques were first applied during the First Influenza Pandemic in 1580. That disease, originally from Asia, spreaded by land routes to Asia Minor and North Africa before moving across Europe and into North America. This period saw the emergence in Europe of early quarantine measures and rudimentary border checkpoints.
As ancient checkpoints were not so secure at all, some big cities imposed the first known quarrantines in history to avoid the spread of diseases (in or out). In the mid-14th century, Venice was struck by the Bubonic Plague, part of an outbreak, known as the Black Death. Venice, as a trading center, was especially vulnerable because part of the source of the infection came in the trading ships infected by rat fleas carrying the disease. Beginning in the early 15th century, part of some Venetian islands (the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio) was designated for isolating and treating plague-stricken Venetians and later, Lazzaretto Nuovo (another island) became a spot where ships coming from places experiencing the plague, or those with suspected sick passengers or crew, anchored. There, people and goods spent a period of 40 days of quarantine(some historians say that number was choosen because it is the same number of days Jesus Christ spent on his spiritual journey through the desert) before being allowed into the heart of the city.
Fig 3. *The island of Lazzaretto Nuovo was one of the isles where the city of Venice quarantined plague-stricken individuals.(https://www.sapiens.org)*
What we know now as “remote work” (“work from home” **:)** ) is a trending technique widely used today to face the actual Pandemic scenario by giving the people the possibility to work remotely from home with and open schedule and just asking for results. You would be surprised to know, dear reader, that this measure was applied before: during different outbreaks in different points in History of the Pandemic known as The Black Death, people used to “work from home” avoiding direct contact with coworkers. In 1665 during one of the Black Death outbreaks affecting London, Cambridge sent its students home – including Sir Isaac Newton, who used that time studying from home and it was precisely during that time (“the year of wonders”) he understood the theories of gravity and motion and made some incredible discoveries in optical physics field. Also, during another outbreak of the same disease Shakespeare used a shutdown of theaters in 1590 to write poetry from home: his long narrative poems “Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of Lucrece” were both composed during this time.
Finally we have an ingenious approach that 100 years ago brought millions of children back to school in the midst of an epidemic. At the biginnings of XX century, tuberculosis had become the leading cause of death in the United States and several other countries of the world. As there was not a vaccine by that time the “outdoor treatment” was one of the few solutions scientists recommended to prevent contagion so, to maintain the health of the children, it was decided to remove the school from the buildings. Healthcare workers and teachers believed that overcrowded classrooms and the lack of fresh air in them were one of the main causes of the spread of the disease so decided to bring the classroom to the open space, in nature, helping millions of children to return to school and minimizing the contagion rate...clever isn't?
Fig 4. *An open-air school in Holland, 1918 (https://www.infobae.com)*
Final thoughts...by now
Ancient Pandemics have shown us the fragility of human race but also they have taught us that it is possible to fight diseases and lower their negative impacts with some simple rules and recurrent techniques. From social distancing to working from home we have several measures we can use to stay away from contagion. Human history is a free teaching book that everyone can seize knowledge from.
So you know now, dear reader, that most of techniques used today to combat the actual Pandemic scenario are not so new at all and those ones were used a long time ago, were previous generations left us that knowledge...for a better life. Perhaps the main teaching Covid19 disease has left to us is that we must not forget what happened. We must not allow next generations to forget, either, because another outbreak will surely arrive when it is least expected at the end they're endemic to our world just like us, so let's learn to live with them.
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